Falcon takes proactive approach in preventing spills

Workers install Falcon Drip Guard for an operator in the Utica Shale. The product ensures any small leaks from production equipment and piping are captured without reaching the ground.

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In the early days of its existence, Houston-based Falcon Technologies helped to clean up drill sites after wells were established.

But over the years, the company has become proactive in creating permanent barriers to the environment that contain spills as they happen.

“They said, ‘Let’s start preventing spills instead of cleaning up spills,’” said Courtney Diezi, director of sales and marketing. “They kind of jumped to the other side of the equation.”

One of the biggest selling points of Falcon’s materials is its durability, Diezi said.

While some competitors sell liners made of polyurethane, that composition can break down with exposure with sunlight.

Falcon’s liner is a proprietary polyurea that makes a seamless barrier to the environments. Diezi said the liner is extremely durable and holds up against oilfield traffic and most commonly found oilfield chemicals.

The material is applied after a drill site or frack site is completed.

In addition to providing an impermeable barrier at the well site, the company also provides secondary containment to support the walls to ensure minimal ground disturbance.

The other advantage is that Falcon’s application time on most sites is quick.

“We’re usually on and off the location in the same day,” Diezi said, adding that only two days are required for work on larger sites.

Falcon has two locations serving the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays, with an office in Bellaire, Ohio, and another in Elmira, N.Y. It began serving the Northeastern Shale market in 2010 and has hired 12 people.

Falcon is a division of CARBO, the world’s largest supplier of ceramic proppant for fracturing oil and gas wells and a supplier of resin-coated sand proppant. The company also provides the oil and gas industry’s most widely used fracture simulation software and provides fracture design and consulting services.

Having been around since 2003, Falcon’s experience spans the unconventional shale regions around the country, from the Barnett to the Bakken, the Haynesville to the Marcellus.